14 DAY TRIAL // Italian scientists from the University of Padua say that visual attention and spatial problems may be the earliest indicators of dyslexia in children. Until now, experts believed that poor verbal skills were the first manifestation of this condition.
In a paper recently published in the journal Current Biology, author Andrea Facoetti writes: “visual attention deficits are surprisingly way more predictive of future reading disorders than are language abilities at the pre-reading stage.”
Experts have been trying to figure out the root cause of dyslexia for quite some time. The condition manifests itself by impairing a person's ability to comprehend concepts with accuracy. Phonological awareness and decoding are impaired, as is short-term memory.
The disorder unfortunately tends to affect young children, so detecting it early on is very important. The new findings may force experts to change the rehabilitation treatments they are currently using, PsychCentral reports.